Just Renee

Since my red root floaters are struggling to really take off in my tank, I am doing an experiment. I have some in a clear tupperwear type bowl in a window with good light, I've had that going for about a week and they look super happy there, much happier than in my tank. I also set up a bucket outside in full sun to see if it likes my extreme heat and heavy duty killer sun (I live in Southern AZ, we're 107 today, so yay). I'm curious to see how it does, I doubt the bucket will work out because it is just soooo hot and the sun is sooo intense but that's the point of the experiment... maybe it will thrive.

I'm getting mine from ebay. My red root floaters sufferred from shipping but I found a solution, as long as they are at least a little viable when you receive them. Instead of chucking them right into your aquarium, put them in a bowl or bucket with water and put in a sunny spot. They really like having no flow so they seem to do best in this type of set up. I also set up a corral for them in my tank using air tubing because they kept getting caught under my hob filter and dying from getting pushed under water over and over again.

I know some of you have tons of experience with dirted tanks, I would be super grateful for any tips or suggestions!

I'm starting a third tank because I am a crazy person. I am just super curious as to how to make a dirted tank work. Now, I live in a very old, tiny house so we don't have room for another tank and frankly, I don't really want another full blown tank. So I bought a jar. From Target, 2 gallons and it was only $14. I would like to do it Walstad style, so I bought some organic potting soil, sifted it and covered it with sand. Put the rock and the plants in and let it sit over night. I now realize I want to take it all out and try again... this time I want to put the sand around the outer edge first, then put in the potting soil, then a deeper sand cap because the soil keeps wanting to peek out in spots and I think that will just be a mess if I don't fix it now. I tried to do a good mix between slow growing plants and fast growers. I have an anubias nana, a java fern, scarlet temple, dwarf grass, pearl weed, spiral val, java moss on the rock, s. repens and crypt undulata red. I might even go crazy and add a stick. I am just using a regular old desk lamp over it and I'm getting a little nano air pump with a little valve regulator thing so I can do a super minimal air stone in it to keep it from getting stagnant. Once I get it more figured out, I will add some floaters (red rooter cooters and I caved and ordered some frogbit on ebay that's coming soon, if it doesn't fry on the way here). Ultimately, I'd like to add some of my new super cute red ramshorn snails, some shrimp and put one of my zillions of guppy fry (or maybe one of the Endlers that annoy the guppy females too much). I'll probably add the snails relatively soon, once its set up again but the rest will wait until the plants are established and I feel like this will actually work without a filter and all that. It's a fun little project/experiment! I assure you, the jar is not breaking the laws of physics. I canNOT figure out how to get pictures to not post sideways... I seriously cannot sort this out on my own. I've tried editing the picture, control-right clicking the picture and so on.

I am new to the hobby all together and just had some new guppies have babies... and more babies... and even more babies. They apparently arrived, how do I say... fully loaded? They were so new that I was doing the medication trio thing and was unable to feed them much due to that and I still have babies for daaaaaays. So you want some guppies? Kidding. I think they were eating microscopic things... I spent about 2 weeks cycling the tank before getting any fish and I was adding lots of plants and eventually some snails during that time. That introduced tiny micro critters and I just assume the fry are eating those and tiny bits of algae, etc? Either that or they are basically air-ferns and just grow regardless. I can't speak on the cory fry but guppy fry find a way... whether you like it or not. LOL

Yes, I'm in Arizona and 100+ at this time of year is the norm. I almost buckled and bought some frogbit from ebay but then stopped myself in time because duh, it's gonna fry on the way here. My red rooter cooters are sloooowly filling in but at least they're growing. They just seem so frickin sensitive.

I have struggled so much with bacopa (moneywort), I just do not get it. It just melts like crazy, gets uprooted really easily and then starts melting again from being pushed back into the substrate. I am trying it again and a stem became uprooted so instead of fighting to keep it planted, I am just letting it float to see if that will make it stronger before I replant it? I don't know, I'm just making it up as I go. I just keep hearing how easy it is to grow and I have such a black thumb with it. I hope you have better luck, Jcdli!

So these are going to be red dragon guppies, because mom was pregnant before I got her. I think the other females (1 more red dragon and 2 red rose whatever they're called guppies) all came pregnant because they all have dark spots on their abdomen and I think that means they're up the duff? One of the red rose moms is not looking great though, she's the one that had a tuft of fungus on her abdomen several days ago that is gone now, but she keeps her dorsal fin pinned against her body and doesn't interact much with the rest of the tank so I don't know if she'll even survive, much less have her babies. I am psyched about these little babies though, they are super cute and make the tank even more fun to watch. I'm clearly going to be up to my armpits in guppies later this summer though, so I'm glad I figured out a back up plan before I even purchased them.

I have so. Many. Babies. Now that they’re a bit bigger, all of the guppies seem to be much less interested in eating them. So I guess that’s why they aren’t really hiding anymore and wow, several babies have survived so far. I can only count 5 at a time but I don’t know if I keep counting the same 5 after that. I was able to get a clear picture of one of them! So cute!!

I agree. That's why I'm straight terrified for HanaHoo to look straight up... it's just so awful! That upstairs neighbor is naaaasty.

That sounds awesome, GuppyMom! I started the tank with the betta with the idea that he would hopefully be good at keeping the population from absolutely exploding. So I hope he did at least get a few fry this time around, that's literally part of his job. (his other job is to look bad ass, which he does well, so yay for that) I have a LFS that will take guppies from me, although upon my first inquiry it wouldn't even be for store credit but even if that's the case, I think it's a great plan for excess babies. I am super excited to see how all these genes mix up and how my mutt guppy/endler mixes turn out! Edited to add: Oh and I STILL have a few fry in the tank, so either the guppies AND the betta suck at eating guppy fry or these little guys are quick witted!

While Tom will clearly have a better chance at good health if you keep him, I would consider taking him back. I know that this is a cold view but he was clearly not completely well when you got him and it's not clear that you will be able to get him better because no one even knows what is wrong with him. He could have an issue that isn't fixable. I strongly believe you should take responsibility when you purchase a pet and care for your pet appropriately for their entire lives however this is assuming you are starting with a well pet. Tom was unwell before you even purchased him. If you were my friend/loved one, I would suggest returning him to the pet store and exchanging for a healthy betta. This does not make you a bad person, it's more a matter of pouring more good time and money after bad... meaning you may not be able to get him into good health but you could be spending that time and money on keeping a well betta healthy. I hope this doesn't make me sound too jaded, I just don't think it's fair to be saddled with the responsibility of a sick pet when it was sold to you sick.

Oh god, this sounds terrifying. I can't unsee a vision of poor HanaHoo getting a face tull of maggots. Ugh!

I think he's very striking. I just bought a koi myself and the thing I love the most about them is their ability to just keep changing colors as time goes. My koi looks very different from the one I saw online, because the stress of shipping apparently frequently causes them to change color. They're like little living paintings. My guy has some fin issues from shipping, which we're addressing right now but here's a pic of him from the other day.. sideways because I can't figure out how to change it.

He is so pretty! Hi Pietro!

Ooo, your floating plants is growing so much faster than mine. I have red root floaters (as a coworker once misheard me call them red rooter cooters, so now that's basically all I call them) and they are slowly picking up speed. I kinda want to try frogbit too but I don't know if anyone in my city carries them and it's way too hot to order anything online. We're already 100 plus and I feel super lucky that the last plant I got from Aquarium co-op didn't come burnt to a crisp.

I wonder if it has something to do with the flow of water in your tank? Like, it can stick to that one tube better than the other? I don't know, I'm making up crap here. Pietro is super pretty! I'd like to see more pics of him! I am really new to bettas and I am in love with them. Their nasty little attitudes and how they seem to always be saying, "You wanna take this outside, bruh? You got something to say, bruh?" to snails and the water heater and a piece of floating water sprite... while looking like beautiful glowing little angels.

Thank you, Cory!

Ah, thank you very much, Colu!

I had rhizome rot and when I was trying to gently brush some brown algae off of a leaf, it just came right off. I sniffed the end of the stem, where it broke off from the rhizome (I swear to gosh, I read that this is a thing... I don't just randomly sniff suspicious stuff) and sweet mother of pearl, the odor. Like death left in the microwave too long with a bad case of halitosis. So... yeah. If a leaf breaks off with absolutely no tugging... give it a sniff. That is a sure sign of rhizome rot. You're welcome.

Quick question, what is the logic behind not feeding fish while they are getting the med trio (Maracyn, Ich X and the parasite med)? Will it mess with the medications to feed the fish?

Cross fingers, CalmedByFish! They are tricky little things though, I just saw 3 of them hiding under rocks and between plant leaves, so who knows? Edited to add, I keep seeing the fry being stupid and derping around the substrate and I keep yelling, RUN, FOREST, RUN! because they attract attention from my hungry little heathens immediately. Those little Forests are pretty fast though! Super cute. Hope at least one makes it.

I think I'm just going to let mother nature have this batch of babies. The whole point of this tank was to hopefully achieve some kind of balance, with just enough fry being eaten so I wouldn't be over-run with babies. I do have a LFS that I can take babies to though, so even if it does get out of hand, I have a back up plan. They're so cute and I really want them to liiiiive but I think I just saw the last two fry get eaten a minute ago. Ah well.

I know, I know. As long as you have male and female guppies together, you can't NOT have babies but this is the first time I've ever allowed a pet to make babies and they're so cute! And being eaten by all the adults and the betta in the tank. I can't feed them because I'm doing a round of meds for some issues the guppies are having, and my plants aren't filled out enough yet to give the little guys more places to hide so I don't have high hopes of any of them surviving right now. That's a bummer. But as long as I get everyone back to good health, I'm excited for more babies! I have a trio of red dragon guppies, a trio of red rose guppies (or something similar... dark blue on the tail with dark orange red solid tails) along with 2 endlers wild type (from petco, not real wild types) so I'm hoping for some super pretty mixes.

I just added 4 TB of aquarium salt to my 20 gallon tank, because that's supposed to help a little and not kill my plants. My water is super hard, with Aquarium Co-op strips, it immediately turns purple. I can't figure out if I should just do the med trio like you would prophylactically, since the signs are so minor, or if I should do a full dose of the Maracyn and IchX?